Issues
by nWo 4 Life
Summary: Logan checks his head, and his position in the Lance & Kitty pairing, but the game keeps changing on him.
1. No Way

This was...really...very...wow...good.  
  
One of the last coherent thoughts to run through Kitty Pryde's head during the few seconds that she shared her first kiss with Lance Alvers.  
  
She felt a little weak in the knees, but before she knew it she was backed up against a tree. Where were they again...? Oh yeah, the Institute.  
  
Snikt.  
  
The kiss broke instantly as both wide-eyed teens turned and saw Logan standing way too close for comfort.  
  
"You know the drill by now, dont'cha Romeo?" The man snarled, just barely keeping the Wolverine contained by the looks of it.  
  
"I have ten seconds to get the hell outta here or we're gonna have a little problem?" Lance recited, never taking his eyes off the adamantium claws.  
  
"Seven," Logan grinned.  
  
"Call ya," Lance said, making brief eye contact with Kitty as he backpedaled, then turned around and ran full blast for the front gate of the Xavier Institute.  
  
Logan watched the boy go until Kitty counted that seven seconds was up. But Logan only shook his head. "Kid's gettin' better. He on the school track team?"  
  
That was the last straw.  
  
"I totally cannot BELIEVE you!" Kitty burst out. "This is what, the 8th time you've done this?! What are you trying to prove, Mr. Logan?!"  
  
She hadn't said 'like' yet. This could be a bad thing.  
  
"Just lookin' out for an X-Man, half--"  
  
"NO! No 'half-pint!' Cuz I'm not a little girl, I'm not YOUR little girl, just cuz I'm younger than most everyone! I'm just trying to have something that resembles a normal life! Don't I at least get that chance?! I live in a place where shooting spikes out of your body and teleporting and turning stuff to ice are encouraged, but I can't date a guy?!"  
  
Logan's claws slid back into his fists.  
  
"It's not about that, Kitty, it's about HIM."  
  
"Oh my God, you hypocrite!" She was practically screaming now. A small voice in the back of her head told her to phase out of there before she said something she would regret, but oh was she pissed right now. "Lance tried to join us once, but he got pushed out because he's was with the Brotherhood! If everyone held it against you every time you took off on your bike, every time you LEFT THE X-MEN, nobody would trust you either!"  
  
He'd been called a lot of things before, including a hypocrite and a deserter, but this time, the Wolverine was kind of hurt.  
  
"He's gonna break yer heart, Kitty, I just don't wanna see that happen."  
  
"How do you know? You're not one of the telepaths last time I checked! Why can't you give him a chance?"  
  
"Give him a chance? He had a chance the same way you had a chance. You joined the X-Men and he brought down the west wing of yer old school! He's bad news, why don't ya see that!"  
  
"You don't know him the way I know him. Oh, no, go ahead, say something like 'I know about that time he almost dislocated Kurt's shoulder.' People change, you know!"  
  
"FINE," Logan growled. He'd had enough. "You want me to give him a chance? Next time I find him in here, I'll step on a twig at ten paces, give him fifteen seconds, but if he's not past the big tree on the side of the road by then, he's mine, cuz I DON'T LIKE HIM."  
  
'Just say it, you moron,' Kitty hissed mentally so intensely she was sure Jean and the Professor could hear her, 'Drop the macho wolf crap and say you care about me! That's all I wanna hear! You're not pissed about Lance, you're pissed cuz you can't show any damn emotion!' Logan only turned and started to walk back to the mansion.  
  
"ASSHOLE!" Kitty blurted out before phasing down through the lawn. Logan stopped in his tracks. "Asshole," he murmered in agreement. Then he lost his cool. With a snarl, he popped his claws, turned, and made one of the well-trimmed hedges into confetti.  
  
When he was done, he once again sheathed his claws and made his way back to the mansion. He was so deep in thought, even his superhuman senses and reflexes didn't react to the slight rumbling of the ground until the earth burst up in front of him and knocked him flat on his rear.  
  
'Yer right, Avalanche,' he thought as if the boy that he heard sneaking away could hear him, 'I hurt her more than you ever could.' 


	2. Hey Daddy

'Logan, could y--' Logan slammed a door behind him and made a very solid effort to block out the Prof's telepathy. He'd get the point. Right now, very few things, very few people, could take his mind off his troubles. And one of them was presumed dead and one he'd just shut himself off from.  
  
He sniffed the air and knew exactly where he could find Hank and Ro. They were in the library. Halfway there, he could hear what they were talking about. The Porcupine, for a change. Kid always seemed to be the topic of conversation these days.  
  
"Ah, Logan, maybe you could be of some assistance," Hank McCoy said, patting the seat next to him. Logan looked at the seat, looked at Hank, and leaned against a bookshelf. The mild-mannered Beast still wasn't used to Logan's sometimes rude mannerisms.  
  
"You've been doing the training sessions with the students for the last week," Ororo cut in, "Have you noticed anything strange about Evan's performance?" Hell yes, he couldn't block on his left if his life depended on it. But Logan had a feeling that Storm wasn't talking about her nephew's lack of skill.  
  
"Dunno," Logan said simply, "No better, no worse than usual."  
  
"You're sure?"  
  
'Did I stutter?' He felt like growling, but he held his tongue.  
  
"Have you, perhaps, smelled any...er...substances...on him?" Oh mercy, there went any hope of this being a leisurely conversation about fighting styles. Honestly, Logan would have known in a second if any of the X-Men had drugs on them, but he was a little peeved at the moment, to say the least, so he saw the glass as half empty. Why did they just assume he would know that? Where did they get off expecting that he kept the young X-Men in order like a mother hen?  
  
"Dunno," he said again. He was really being an SOB, he knew full well, but he needed to get it out of his system. No further questions came, so he felt the coast was clear to leave.  
  
"Logan, please, it's one of your responsibilities to--" Oh no he didn't.  
  
"TO WHAT?" he roared, spinning around. "It's my responsibility to teach these kids hand-to-hand combat and survival skills, cuz I'm the best at that. I AIN'T THESE KIDS' HEALTH TEACHER! LEGAL GUARDIAN! OR FATHER!"  
  
The moment of clarity that followed that outburst stung Logan a little.  
  
"Logan?" Ororo asked softly. She knew him well enough to know that his attitude had little to do with them, it was something he had to get off his chest.  
  
"Never smelled a thing on him, Ro," Logan said, the calm returning to his voice. A nod toward Hank before he exited was as close to an apology as he'd ever give.  
  
Going to apologize to Kitty wasn't even an option. Just the thought of it re-tied one of the knots in his gut. 'Dammit, Logan,' he cursed himself, 'When'd you become such a wuss?' If he was really going to work out his frustrations, he'd have to see that dear, dear, dearly departed friend.   
  
The Danger Room door slid open, the current simulation fading to an early end. "Popsicle. Out." Wolverine, in costume now, glared daggers at Iceman, who quickly slid out of his way.  
  
"Voice recognition Logan," he said as the doors slid shut, "Sim Sabretooth 93." 


	3. Wish You could Be Me

Rogue shifted in her seat, crossed her legs the other way, and rested her Global homework on the one that hadn't fallen asleep. Even without her Discman blasting, she wouldn't have heard her roommate phase in through the floor. Kitty absentmindedly tapped Rogue on the shoulder as she walked by, not realizing that her entrance went undetected. Rogue jumped, and her pen slid halfway across the page.  
  
"Oops," Kitty said, plopping down on the bed to avoid Rogue's stare.  
  
BAMF. "Ladies."  
  
Both girls jumped this time as Kurt appeared, hanging by his tail off of the ceiling fan.  
  
"Date's ova already?" Rogue asked, taking out a fresh sheet of paper and removing her headphones.  
  
"Yeah," Kitty huffed, "Like, who knew Wolverines were pests?"  
  
"Do you even like Lance?" Kurt asked rather unexpectedly.  
  
"Sure, why?"  
  
"Sometimes it seems like you just go out vith him to piss Logan o--" BAMF. Kurt made a quick exit to avoid the flying pillow aimed at him. He didn't see any need to 'port back, he'd made his point. Not that he was purposely trying to stir things up, but from his point of view, Lance was just the means to get a reaction out of Logan. Granted, Kurt's point of view was just a tad obscured with a crush on Kitty, but he couldn't be that far off the mark.  
  
"He's right, y'know," Rogue said once Kurt's telltale puff of smoke had dissipated.  
  
"No he's not," Kitty protested. "Well, like not totally," she added a few seconds later. "I mean, I like Lance a lot, he's great, but...I know we don't always have to come back here every time we go out. In fact I think next time it'll like be his last." She illustrated her point by slashing across her throat with a gesture like Wolverine's claws.  
  
"So y'are tryin' to get Logan mad?" Rogue prodded.  
  
"No, no...and omigod, don't give me that look, I am not trying to make Logan jealous!"  
  
"Did ah say anything?" The Goth girl asked innocently.  
  
"It's just that, you know I think of the X-Men as like, my family. I think everyone except you does. And I guess in some weird way I think of Mr. Logan as the dad around here. He's just, like, there for us more than the Professor or Mr. McCoy, y'know? But it just like throws me off that he never cracks a smile unless its that evil one he does when he's fighting, he never acknowledges when we do good in training...I know I sound like a lunatic, but it totally drives me up the wall sometimes that he doesn't show any emotion. He's gotta like, know how we all look up to him."  
  
Rogue pondered for a moment. Kitty had a point, but..."You're so dumb sometimes."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
That had sounded meaner than was intended, but now it was Rogue's turn to counterpoint, so she continued. "Ah said you're so dumb sometimes. From what ah've heard, you and Kurt know more about what Logan went through than any of us, and you still don't understand where he's comin' from."  
  
Kitty looked at her friend questioningly.  
  
"Do ya realize that if he ever had a wife, or kids, before he got turned into Weapon X, he wouldn't know em if he bumped into them on the street? He had all his memories erased, all the people he ever cared about might as well be dead to him. That can't be an easy thang to deal with. Ah don't blame him for not being willin' to show emotion, he's been burned real bad in that department."  
  
Kitty, who had come to sit on the edge of the bed while listening, dropped onto her back again with a sigh. Of course Rogue was 100% right. She guessed that maybe Rogue was able to hit the nail right on the head because she was just the opposite, her traumatic thing was getting other people's emotions stuck in her head. But who was she kidding, nobody's that good.  
  
"You absorbed him, didn't you."  
  
"Once," Rogue confessed, "It wasn't fun, as ya can probably guess." 


End file.
